I have always believed that if you don?t have a sense of humor, then you better get the hell out of this business. Below is a link to a YouTube video entitled ?All I Want to do is Retire? which covers the decline of the brokerage industry over the last 20 years.

The video is currently going viral, with 94,000 views so far, and was sent to me by a subscriber. Watch this during your next coffee break. The run time is five minutes. Sometimes the truth can be hard to swallow. Click here to view.

We have two options position that are in-the-money and expire in 11 trading days, and I just want to explain to the newbies how to best maximize their profits.

These comprises:

the S&P 500 (SPY) June $212-$217 in-the-money vertical bear put spread with a cost of $4.51

the Japanese Currency ETF (FXY) June $91-$94 vertical bear put spread with a cost of $2.65

As long as the (SPY) closes at or below $212.00 on Friday, June 17, the position will expire worth $5.00 and you will achieve the maximum possible profit of 10.86%.

As long as the (FXY) closes at or below $91 on Friday, June 17, the position will expire worth $3.00 and you will achieve the maximum possible profit of 13.20%.

Better that a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as they say.

In this case, the expiration process is very simple. You take your left hand, grab your right wrist, pull it behind your neck and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Your broker (are they still called that?) will automatically use the long put to cover the short put, cancelling out the positions. The profit will be credited to your account on the following Monday, and the margin freed up.

Of course, I am watching these positions like a hawk, as always. If an unforeseen geopolitical event causes the (SPY) or the (FXY) to take off to the upside once again, such as Janet Yellen announces that there will never be another interest rate hike again, you should get the Trade Alert in seconds.

If the (SPY) expires slightly out-of-the-money, like at $214.10, then the situation may be more complicated, and can become a headache.

On the close, your short put position expires worthless, but your long put position is converted into a large, leveraged outright naked short position in the (SPY) with a net cost of? $217.49.

This position you do not want on pain of death, as the potential risk is huge and unlimited, and your broker probably would not allow it unless you put up a ton of new margin.

This is not what moneymaking is all about.

Professionals caught in this circumstance then buy a number of shares of (SPY) on expiration day equal to the short position they inherit with the expiring $217 put to hedge out their risk.

Then the long (SPY) stock position is cancelled out by the short (SPY) resulting from the exercised stock position, and on Monday both disappear from your statement. However, this can be dicey to execute going into the close.

So for individuals, I would recommend just selling the $214-$217 put spread outright in the market if it looks like this situation may develop and the (SPY) is going to close very close to the $214 strike, even if it as a loss.

The risk control is just too hard to handle.

There is another reason to come out early. Some brokers exercise the options in the spread into shares on expiration, and then hit you with a another commission on the sale of the shares.

So check with you broker to see how they handle options expirations.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Keep in mind, also, that the liquidity in the options market disappears, and the spreads widen, when a security has only hours, or minutes until expiration. This is known in the trade as the ?expiration risk.?

One way or the other, I?m sure you?ll do OK, as long as I am looking over your shoulder, as I will be.

Well done, and on to the next trade.

Well Done and On to the Next Trade

With the price of oil closing at a low on Friday of $48.33, you?d think I might be concerned.

In actual fact, I could care less, am indifferent, unconcerned, and couldn't even give a rat?s ass.

In actual fact, oil was exactly at $48.33 a year ago. If you?d taken a one year cruise around the world, as I advised, you?d wonder what all the fuss is about.

Furthermore, I believe that oil could be at $48.33 a year from now. We may visit $60 first, then $40. But basically the price of oil has reached an equilibrium.

It is just high? enough to keep too many producers from going bankrupt, but low enough the keep that juggernaut, the America consumer, in the stores and buying.

There?s nothing like seeing your long-term forecasts vindicated.

When I warned the oil majors in the late 1990?s that fracking technology was about to change their world beyond all recognition, they told me I was out of my tree, in the politest way possible, as is their way in Houston.

Their argument was that the technology was untested, unproven, and a huge liability risk. If they accidently polluted underground fresh water supplies, the ambulance chasers would make a beeline towards the deepest pockets around, and that was theirs.

They were telling me this after I supplied them my data showing my 17 consecutive successful wells drilled in the depleted oilfields of the Barnett Shale, in West Texas (in the old Comanche country).

Some 17 years later and the energy industry has been changed beyond all recognition.

The majors finally jumped into fracking after building legal firewalls against the liability that so concerned them, and started fracking like there was no tomorrow.

The message is pretty clear. In the last five years, US oil production has skyrocketed from 8 million to 11.3 million barrels a day. It has since backed off 1 million b/d from the top.

America can now become the world?s largest oil producer any time it wants, eclipsing Saudi Arabia at 11 million b/d, and Russia at 10.5 b/d and falling. Thanks to the oil crash, there are now 1,000 wells that have been drilled, but capped, awaiting higher prices.

Some 200 large crude carriers are also slow steaming in circles around various parts of the world, awaiting the same.

Oil imports have collapsed from 10.3 to 6 million barrels a day. The share coming from the volatile Middle East has shrunk to a miniscule 2 million barrels a day.

Some 80% of Persian Gulf oil exports now go to China. OPEC surplus oil production capacity is soaring. It couldn?t happen to a nicer bunch of people.

The US will achieve energy independence within three years, or at least parity in its imports and exports of energy and distillates.

The administration is doing what it can to help along this trend, permitting the first exports of distillates in half a century, to South Korea it turns out.

Is it any wonder that president Obama is turning a blind eye to recent horrific developments in the Middle East? This explains why I really don?t care about oil prices anymore.

There is another upshot to all of this. About the time that America gets its energy independence back, it should also get a balanced budget.

That is coming primarily from the big cuts in defense spending. The twin deficits, energy and the budget, are intimately linked. It is no surprise then, they will disappear together.

By the way, did I mention that this is all great news for the long-term future for stock prices? The stock market certainly thinks so, with its stubborn refusal to fall substantially.

And for the price of oil?

I am not big buyer here. Nor am I a seller. We could ratchet back and forth within a $40-$60 range for quite some time.

Ask me again at either end of that range and I might be interested.

Just thought you?d like to know.

Do You Think There?s Too Much?